Truth Test

Dissecting political ads is a tricky proposition.

This week we ran a story questioning Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker's attack of Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. on national security issues.

In the ad, Corker claims Ford voted against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Our revew of the Ford voting record shows he voted against reauthorization twice. But is that the whole story?

No. Ford and others were concerned about the lack of protections of Americans' civil liberties. And he wasn't alone. When the Patriot Act went to the Senate, it stalled because of those concerns.

It wasn't until a compromise bill by Republican Senator John Sununu was proposed, that the Congress was able to pass the Patriot Act and send it to the President for his signature.

But here's the catch. Sununu's compromise was a separate bill passed by both Houses and supported by Ford. The President signed both bills into law.

So, technically Ford never voted for reauthorization of the Patriot Act, but agreed with the Act once the compromise bill, which he voted for, was approved.

The Ford campaign says my original report was hypertechnical and left the public with the impression that Ford doesn't support the Patriot Act.

I'm not sure I left that impression, but here's another stab at it. Based on our reading of the record, Ford did not approve of the Patriot Act in its original form and voted against it twice.

He voted for a compromise bill that gave Americans' civil liberty protections not included in the Patriot Act. His campaign says that vote was in fact a vote for the Patriot Act.